The control of electronic products has developed considerably in recent years. Previously electronic devices, such as televisions or audio equipment, were controlled using wireless remote controls, for instance. Current pointing technologies employ wireless mice or keyboards for controlling a computer. General-purpose remote controls also exist, in which control software can be loaded for controlling the device to be controlled. Studies have also been carried out concerning graspable user interfaces, in which the data of electronic devices is controlled using physical objects symbolizing the data. With the progress of technology a concept of “ubiquitous computing” has been created, which mainly refers to the fact that the data processing capacity previously found only in computers has been transferred to electronic devices by placing microprocessors thereto. What has become a problem is how to intelligently control these very different devices using for instance a single wireless control device.
However, the object of ubiquitous computing, and particularly of a sub-type thereof—context sensitive applications—is to create applications that serve the user, if not automatically, then at least semi-automatically. In order to be able to do this, the applications require context information, or information concerning the user context. When the control of electronic devices is concerned, the context information allows selecting the devices that the user is assumed to be willing to control. The context information can be derived or deduced from a set of different types of data. Such types may include the position of the user or another physical measurement unit associated with the environment. The types also comprise the operations that occur in data processing systems (such as home automation systems), which can thus not be measured. Creating the data needed to form the context information requires a measurement functionality in the user environment systems, and in order to process the measurement results the use of various computationally heavy methods may be required. For example, measurement and determination to be carried out for accurately locating the user is an extremely complex process, particularly in interior surroundings. No solutions are currently known for selecting the device to be controlled, in which context data formed of sensor data is not used.
In brief, the most significant problem is the complexity and costs of creating the data required for forming the context information and of interpreting said context information.